Rotherham Titans ready to challenge the big boys

Guy Williams

Given his background at Leicester Tigers, one of the giants of English rugby, fans of Rotherham Titans can expect that new scrum half George Tresidder to play a major role in the new Championship season which starts against London Welsh at Clifton Lane a week on Sunday.

Tresidder, aged 21, joined the Tigers’ academy at 16, but because of the competition from England scrum half Ben Youngs and the talented Sam Harrison, he was restricted to two Premiership appearances. He did, though, play in two games against Argentina in a World Cup warm-up match in 2015 and then against the Barbarians.

So, offered the opportunity to play regular first team rugby at a decent, professional level, he joined Rotherham.

“I want to get as much game-time as I can” he said. “That’s my priority. There are three scrum halves here-myself, Matt Dudman and Matt Walsh-and we’ll be scrapping all year. The competition is brilliant. Rotherham’s goals fit with mine; I felt it was somewhere I could prosper. We’ve got a young squad and ambitious coaches, and we approach the season confidently. We’re looking at a top four spot. We’re using the pre-season games to iron out anything that’s going wrong, so we’ll be ready to challenge the top teams.

“The Championship is incredibly tough. There’s a lot of quality, particularly with London Irish coming down. Everyone realises that clubs will have to up their game to contend with a club that have spent so long in the Premiership.”

Tresidder doesn’t read too much into last Saturday’s heavy defeat at Northampton Saints. “It was only our second game as a new squad and it was against Premiership opposition with international players. No one is pressing any panic buttons.”

He added: “We contested well for the first half and should have been in front.

“We’ve identified what went wrong and hopefully have corrected things going into the next game at Hull Ionians on Saturday.”

As Leicester recruit only the best youngsters, it can be safely assumed that Tresidder has abundant talent; therefore it will be at Rotherham Titans where he will mature and not in the East Midlands.